


Looking Forwards (Backwards)

by allourheroes



Series: the future envisioned [2]
Category: X-Men (Movies), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) - Fandom
Genre: (Between Logan and Jean), Alternate Future, Gen, Sequel, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-30
Updated: 2014-05-30
Packaged: 2018-01-27 14:11:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1713485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allourheroes/pseuds/allourheroes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The history of Erik and Charles that Logan has missed, as shown through Jean and old photographs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Looking Forwards (Backwards)

**Author's Note:**

> This is a sequel to The Calm, to try to expand on the new past (future?) a bit. I just. "All those years wasted…" I'd rather they hadn't been.

"The professor told me what happened," Jean says.

"Yeah?" Logan's heart is pounding in his chest, all those memories pouring in--memories of Jean, of the Phoenix.

"Must be hard, waking up in a life you don't remember living." Her words are soft, but he can feel her prying ever-so-slightly, wanting to press into his mind but holding herself back.

He watches her carefully, but her expression doesn't change. She is a façade of gentle concern. "Best you stay out of here, Jeanie," he tells her, tapping a finger to his temple and feeling the fear that coils tight in his stomach. The last thing in this world he wants for her is to see that other reality, her own possible fate.

She nods. "Of course." Her brows furrow but she doesn't push the issue--not now. She walks around to the desk. "I heard you were surprised to see Erik here," she says, glancing up to gauge his reaction.

Logan shrugs. "We weren't exactly _pals_. This one stabbed me full of rebar and drowned me. To see him and the professor so... _chummy_ after the guy just tried to kill me, well... Let's say it takes some getting used to." He's smiling and so is she and his heart swells a little.

"Here," she says, and floats a picture frame into his hand.

Erik is old--perhaps not quite as old as he is now--and kneeling before Charles, slipping that damn ring onto his finger. Logan chuckles.

"Their wedding," Jean explains and Logan looks up at her from beneath his lashes. "It was a long road for them. Hard. It's hard enough for mutants as it is, but for them to be together _and_ more or less raising a bunch of kids?" She shakes her head, her power gently prying the frame from his fingers and running her own over it gently.

"When did they, you know, _reconcile_?" he asks, noticing the other pictures along the walls.

Her smile widens and damn if he's not still happy just to see her. "They were on-again off-again for years," she says. "Different ideas, stern moral codes..." She frowns thoughtfully. "Probably sometime around '81, '82? Magneto needed a place to lay low and the professor let him stay here--god knows why." She laughs. "I was just a kid then, but the school was much larger than it'd been. I think seeing all of those young mutants, all of Xavier's hope..." Sighing, Jean walks over to the wall, beckoning Logan to follow.

There are pictures there, hidden among others of the school and the students and teachers. There's one of a much younger Charles--still older than the one he'd met--blushing and turning away from Erik's kiss as it lands on the corner of his mouth instead. Erik's hands are on the armrests of his wheelchair and he looks happy--as far as Logan can tell--and so does the professor. There's another of Charles, less amused, as Erik levitates the chair. "The kids loved it," Jean adds, pointing to it, "I did, at least. I couldn't lift anything that big. Erik was always better at helping me understand the physical manifestations of my powers."

These are fond memories, he realizes, of being raised by the professor and Magneto. He's starting to understand the effect those two and their altered relationship have had on this reality, on Jean.

"He built him that chair," she says. "He and Hank." She trails her fingers across the glass.

He wants to ask her about it--them--but she's already moving on, making her way down the wall as if replaying these moments as she does. He pauses, however, to stare at a picture of Peter Maximoff with his arm around Erik's shoulder, they're both grinning. "Why--"

"His son," Jean says, gleaning his question too easily from the surface of his thoughts. "I assumed you would've known."

Logan lets out a hearty laugh at that, hands on his thighs. "His son?" he repeats, and Jean nods. "Makes about as much sense as anything else."

She's frowning a little, but she quickly covers it with neutrality. "It's a lot to take in," she offers. "I know."

He swallows, hoping very much that she _doesn't_ know and never has to.

His eyes skim over the pictures, catching glimpses of them through the years, little moments captured. The photos catalogue the steps of their journey to the men they are today.

Jean's hand reaches out and her power pulls a picture from the wall for her. She holds it gingerly, like it's important. She tilts it in a gesture of offering.

It's her and Erik sitting out on the grass. She can't be more than eleven or twelve and it takes him a second to realize she's levitating a picnic basket between them. Erik is laughing, all open delight as he glances sidelong at the photographer.

"Xavier took the picture," she says, smiling fondly.

"How 'bout that," Logan murmurs, but there's no surprise there now. He smiles again and it's not just for Jean.


End file.
